Tag: 2018 (page 1 of 3)

2018 was not a good year for me in a number of ways. One thing that really stands out is my embarkation as a DM in the D&D world, and admitting that I’d defeated myself with my leaping feet-first into a homebrew campaign. That was really hard to do, but I wasn’t having fun with it any more, and I knew if I tried to push myself, my friends wouldn’t have fun either due to my lack of preparation. I didn’t give up completely, however. My solution was to get an off the shelf game and speed-prep what I needed for it in a week or two so we could get to gaming as soon as possible. Half those plans fell through—we weren’t actually able to start the new campaign in December due to various people getting sick or not being able to show up. I myself spent a week with some weird illness where I felt physically drained and slept pretty much all day for something like five or six days straight. We are set to game tomorrow, though, which I’m glad about. Nobody’s ill, I think I’m as prepared as I can get, and we’re all desperate to play D&D together.

One thing that did go well, at least toward the last quarter of the year, was my writing. I made I don’t know how many false starts early on in the year, where I’d commit myself to completing something, then pretty much immediately failed to do so. Finally, at the end of August, I was fed up with that crap, and I decided I’d spend September reading through as many incomplete WIPS as I possibly could and then decide which one to work on. I focused more on those I had outlines for and eventually decided to work on Unwritten Letters starting in October. This I’m calling my Fool’s Errand, which I’ve been posting about on Saturdays here on AEP.

Also, I’ve made lots of new friends. So many people in my life now, I can barely name them all. I’ve started learning how to quilt, gotten more regular with crocheting, and have been cooking more. All because I have more friends in my life.

I continued using a Bullet Journal through most of 2018 as well, but to be honest, it was a struggle before the end of 2017 in some respects. Much of the Bullet Journal format is repetitive and labor-intensive, which made it seem like work, and thus not much fun, to work on. So I adjusted it. I don’t do the month overviews or lists of major things I want to get done every month. At about the same time I started reading through my WIPS, I decided to trim my Bullet Journal down to three primary things: Monthly Budget, Weekly Log, and Daily Log. I also obeyed an impulse I had and started listing completed tasks below the Task List, instead of just marking them as done. This proved to be a good instinct, because I find the act of actually writing out the name of the task to be more motivating than just marking the task as complete. I don’t just keep it to tasks I’ve listed as needing done, but also list things that I’ve done that weren’t on the Task List to begin with. And I don’t sweat the stuff I don’t do.

So those are the highlights of 2018. I’ll post more about my writing on Saturday. Until then, here are my general goals for the year, in no particular order:

Continue DMing for my Thursday Gaming Group.

Cook more frequently.

Continue pursuing my claims with the VA.

Read 12 books over the course of the year. More if possible, but at least 12.

Learn to play the flute. Poor thing’s probably rusted by now, it’s been so long since I used it.

I didn’t get much done Thursday. Lack of motivation got me. Did go to gaming with my longtime gaming friends, got a plot card on Unwritten Letters, and chatted with Mom. Aside from those things, nothing else.

I stayed in bed until noon on Wednesday, then got up only to do kitty care and take my prebreakfast meds. After that, I laid down on the sofa for a bit, then got up to cancel MTG since I’d had only one “I’ll be there” response. Laid down again—in fact, all afternoon, right into the early evening, I only got up for limited amounts of time between longer periods stretched out on the sofa napping. It wasn’t mood, precisely. More a lack of motivation. Days like this are relatively rare, but I’ve had more than one this week. Three as a matter of fact: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

But things turned around.

I finally settled at my desk and eventually got all my tasks from the day’s list done (aside from the MTG). Got my 250 words, did D&D prep, worked on a tarot card, read, kept up with my journal, and practiced my languages. Can’t really say I felt very motivated, I was just wanting to be able to write a list of tasks completed. Which I guess is motivation of a sort. Usually, though, I’m more interested in my tasks, especially the reading, languages, and writing. But I didn’t even want to read, and that says a lot about my lack of motivation.

As for what I’m reading, it’s my friend Lazette Gifford’s book, the first of her Raventower and Merriweather series, Secrets. It’s a steampunk set on a secondary world. I’ve only just gotten to Chapter 6, but it’s been a great read so far. This post’s header image is the cover of Zette’s book, and the book can be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

I got maybe half of the things on my Task List done Monday, if that, but I had some fun distractions. Two things that weren’t on my list but which I did were chatting with Mom because she called, and going to Hero Forge to order my Nosedrool mini with the birthday money Mom gave me for my birthday. I also paid Kit to paint the mini.

From my list, I did my languages, sent out the announcement for Kit’s D&D, read, and contacted Ross to coordinate groceries.

And I finally got to attend Game Night at Christian’s. Had a great time. We played three rounds of Boss Monster. One round we learned the game, the second round we played by the rules, and the third round we played by a couple of variant rules. I lost all three rounds, but had a lot of fun, and I actually managed to improve my “score” with each session.

Sunday was pretty productive despite me not sleeping the night before. I didn’t get tired, so I didn’t put myself to bed. Over the course of the morning, I read a bit, did my languages, got my 250 words, and sorted my pills. Also sent out the Wednesday MTG announcement and called Mom.

I almost didn’t go to game, but I went anyway. Lynn wasn’t able to do D&D this week ’cause he had something else going on, so Kit ran a one-off game called Honey Heist. In this game, participants play either a bear or a honey badger. The goal is to steal a bunch of honey. It was hilarious. I played an unhinged black bear who was a thief with advantage in climbing named Justin Bearber. All I knew was my bear’s name prior to play, because we players had to come up with that. Everything else was rolled up, from type of bear to role played in the game. My exhaustion actually added to my play in this game, as I played my bear with a bit of flamboyance. We successfully finished the game in about three hours.

Having decided after Honey Heist that we would do movie night, Daz and I went to Smith’s to pick up some food and then came home. Varick joined us and we had sushi before starting up Iron Man 2. After that, they left, and I read an incomplete wip or two and then hit the sack.

On Saturday, I didn’t get out of bed ’til noon, though I woke up a couple times before then. Just wanted to sleep more. After I got up, I didn’t do much. Greg had texted me sometime after 09:00 asking if I was awake, and replied. I performed my usual kitty care routine, then laid down on the sofa hoping for some more sleep. I really didn’t want to be up. Sleep didn’t really come, so I got up and had breakfast, then got on the computer for a short time before trying to nap again. This time worked better, and Hendrix came to join me and curled up behind my bent knees.

After that, I got up and puttered around a bit. Greg got back with me and told me he’d tell me when he started on his way over. I think I tried lying down again, but that didn’t work, so I got up to fritter around on the computer, and Greg texted to say he was on his way. So I waited about 10-15 minutes then went downstairs to let him in.

My Thursday gaming group will be starting a new version of an old game we’ve played for a while. Previously, we played Vampire: The Masquerade. Phil decided to try something new, and we’re now getting into Vampire: The Requiem. He’s mentioned combining the two versions, but I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen with that. In the interest of familiarizing the two of us who don’t live with him with the new version of Vampire, Phil gave the book for it to Greg to read through, then told Greg to pass it on to me when he finished. That’s why Greg wanted to come over yesterday. And of course I invited him up to my place to hang out, and he had two cups of tea while we chatted about various things. He left after maybe an hour or so.

I tried lying down again, then gave up quickly and decided to crochet with Forensic Files on from Netflix. Did that for about two hours, then put everything away and returned to my computer. By now, it was nearly 21:00, but I did manage to get a number of things done. I called Anita first, and we had an hour-long chat. After that, I did my languages, a tarot card, and wrote up an update for my Fool’s Errand site. Also kept up with my journal.

No, I didn’t get 250 words. I’d already met my goal of five days of writing, so I decided to take the day off from writing. Didn’t edit any chapters of DH03, either, but I got the week’s three done by Friday, so that was really moot. I did do a bit of reading though—online. Posts on MeWe and an online comic I follow.

I got a lot done Friday. In part due, I’m sure, to the fact I pretty much slept all day Thursday and as a result didn’t get tired or put myself to bed Thursday night. Over the morning hours, I knocked out almost everything on my list, leaving only quilting to do, and I even got a couple things not on it done. That includes my 250 words, started a book by my friend Zette, calling Mom, doing a tarot card, getting my prompt up on my MeWe group, editing Chapter 14 of DH03, doing my languages, doing a chapter for GIMP, posting Chapter 10 of DH03, and doing some D&D prep. At noon, Katie picked me up for quilting. We stopped at a vendor of tacos on the street and got massive burritos, and then to her place for quilting, where I did two blocks. When I got home, I read through one of my incomplete WIPS and edited Chapter 15 of DH03. It was a really good day!

Thursday started out slow. At 10:00, when my alarm went off, I still felt a little ill, so I told my friends I wouldn’t be able to make it to game. Well, my message was something along the lines of, “not feeling well.” I finally got up around 13:00 and then spent the first several hours out of bed lying on my sofa in various states of wakefulness. Eventually, I gave in to the temptation to watch some Forensic Files while crocheting and spent about 2 or 3 hours doing that. Afterward, I discovered that the stem of one of the nose rests on my glasses had broken, so excavated an older pair of glasses to use and set to accomplishing tasks.

Before bed, I’d edited DH03CH13. That’ll go up on Wattpad in a few weeks.

After my extended sleep time, I got my 250 words, did my languages, and kept up with my journal. After a break to buy some new glasses from an online purveyor, I also did some D&D prep.

I’ve had an upset stomach since Tuesday, with a slight headache. Not sure what it is, but it didn’t affect me too much Wednesday. I did my tarot card for the day, set up the last 18 cards for tarot lesson #1 from The Complete Tarot Reader by Teresa C. Michelson, and called my Mom. Also got my 250 words and did my languages, as well as spent a few hours crocheting to the “tune” of Forensic Files.

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